Protect Your Growing Business with Process Server Insurance

As a process server, you’re an integral part of the justice system and aren’t afraid of a little hard work. What happens if you find yourself on the other side of court proceedings, though? Process server insurance can potentially protect your business (and finances) in case of an accident.

Here at Simply Business, we can help match you with the right policy.

We’re an online insurance platform that helps small business owners cut through confusing insurance options to get covered and get back to business. Not sure what kind of insurance you need? No worries — our simple quote process narrows down choices to match you with policy options based on your business, location, and more.

The best part is that it takes only a few minutes to get free quotes from the nation’s top insurers.

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Business Insurance Policies Available for Process Servers:

• Professional liability insurance
• General liability insurance
• Workers compensation insurance

Benefits:

• It can protect your business from certain claims.
• It can cover damages caused by your negligence.
• Proof of insurance can help clients feel good about your work.
• It may be required where you’re located.

What Type of Insurance Do Process Servers Need?

With low overhead and flexible hours, getting into the process serving business can be enticing. Before you get started (or go further), though, it’s important to understand the insurance options available to you. Here are the three policies to consider.

Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance isn’t just for doctors or surgeons — process servers benefit from it too. Your job is essential to legal proceedings, and your crucial status means your actions can likely help or hinder a case. While most of the time it feels good to play an essential role, it also means you could be sued for negligence.

Imagine you’re serving some documents in an office building, and you read the name of the respondent to a secretary to find the correct office. Unfortunately, you misread the name on your documents and served the papers to the wrong person. In any other job, a little slip would be no big deal. However, for you, your mistake could caused court proceedings to stall, and your client could then try to sue you for negligence.

What are your options in this case? Well, if you had professional liability insurance, your policy could help cover your legal fees and damages up to your policy limits. If you chose to forgo insurance, you’d be stuck with the bill yourself.

By getting PL coverage before you need it, you could likely avoid dipping into your personal finances or getting a loan to handle claims.

To summarize, here’s what a professional liability policy can cover:

• Negligence or alleged negligence
• Legal defense costs
• Omissions or alleged omissions
• Claims and damages
• And more

Keep in mind that PL insurance usually doesn’t cover:

• Intentional acts and omissions
• Property damage
• Medical expenses
• Bodily injury
• And more

General Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance applies only to some professions, but most businesses can benefit from general liability insurance. This type of policy typically covers costs associated with third-party accidents, damages to property, and bodily injury to a third party (e.g., a client or vendor).

For process servers, damages could be as simple as slamming the front gate at a residence too hard after serving someone and damaging the gate door’s locking mechanism. If you had process server insurance, your policy could usually help you pay to repair the gate door.

Insurance also could help if you find yourself in even deeper water. A broken gate isn’t so serious, but the reality is that the average customer injury or damage claim is a whopping $30,000. Unless you’re content to pay that out of pocket, it’s a good idea to consider getting insurance.

To recap, here’s what general liability insurance usually can cover:

• Bodily injury to another person
• Third-party property damage
• Personal and advertising injury
• Medical expenses
• And more

Now check out what general liability insurance usually doesn’t cover:

• Damage to your own property
• Professional services
• Workers compensation or injury to your employees
• Damage to your work
• Motor vehicles while in business use
• Expected or intentional injury or damage
• And more

Workers Compensation Insurance

You started as a one-person company, and now you have a team! Growing your company is a reason to celebrate, but it’s not without a few extra considerations. For one, most states require you to carry workers compensation insurance if you have employees.

Even if you employ only one or two part-time employees, your state may require workers comp. Check to see your state’s laws here. Or simply complete the free quote process to determine what coverage options you may need based on the answers provided.

Even if workers comp wasn’t generally required by law, it would be a helpful addition. Considering that the average work injury cost is $41,000, your policy could save you a lot of money if something happens to an employee.

In general, workers compensation insurance can cover:

• Medical payments
• Lost wages
• Rehabilitation expenses
• Death benefits

Why Should I Get Process Server Insurance?

Your job isn’t always glamorous, but it is critical. With your responsibility to your community comes liability, and business insurance can help.

Unfortunately, 43% of small business owners polled reported being threatened with or involved in a civil lawsuit. If you’re one of the unlucky business owners who finds yourself in court, the costs could be high.

Just take a look at the most common incidents that can happen to small business owners, including how much they can cost on average:

• Reputational Harm — $50,000
• Client Injury or Damage — $30,000
• Client Slip and Fall — $20,000

You deserve to use every dime you earn to support yourself and grow your business. Without insurance, though, you’re likely gambling with your finances. A single slip could potentially snowball into a damage or negligence claim, which could quickly rack up bills for your business.

The frustrating part is that you may not even need to make a mistake to find yourself in hot water. If a client brings a negligence claim against you that you disagree with, at the very least, you’ll have to pay for your defense, and for damages at the worst. While all of this sounds scary, it’s important to understand what could lie ahead and make an informed decision that’s best for you.

Process server insurance isn’t all doom and gloom, though. When you get insured, you can request a certificate of insurance (COI). This document could be required by landlords to rent office space, and it also may be useful for gaining the trust of potential clients and employees.

While having business insurance can have a significant impact on your business, getting covered doesn’t have to be difficult Here at Simply Business, we make getting insured easy!

Process Server Insurance FAQs

Why Choose Simply Business?

Every community is home to countless jobs that keep everything running. We want you to know that at Simply Business, we see your efforts and want to help keep your business thriving.

Simply Business is an online insurance platform that helps small business owners protect what they’ve created. We’re also one of the fastest-growing online providers of small business insurance, with thousands of customers trusting us to protect their growing businesses. Finding, comparing, and choosing insurance can be overwhelming. That’s why we try to make the process as simple as possible.

So why choose Simply Business?

• We’re fast and affordable. You can find and compare plans in under 10 minutes to quickly get back to business as usual.

• We’re flexible with coverage. Whether you’re looking for your first insurance policy or you need to upgrade coverage for new employees, and beyond — we’ve got you covered.

• We get your business. Say no to one-size-fits-all insurance plans. Get personalized process server protection that fits your needs.

Sometimes you have to be the bearer of bad news in your job, but you carry your business with professionalism and efficiency. Your dedication is why we offer the best coverage options to protect your business.

This content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, accounting, investment, or any other form of professional advice.